Girls of the Land
by lilgirlost
Summary: She was a city girl…a Londoner. But with German bombs at her door, night after night, she'd take her chance with the country, as a Land Girl.


**Disclaimer: **Sadly, I don't own Glee…so sad.

**Author Notes: **At the end of June, I decided to set myself a challenge. And the challenge is simple, every day in the month of July, I will post a piece of fanfiction or a piece of fanart (which coincides with one of the pieces of writing) to my tumblr related to my Glee OTPs and World War II.

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><p><strong>Girls of the Land<strong>

_Yorkshire, England, 1941_

She was a city girl, through and through and had never been outside of London before in her life. If only her grandparents could see her now, they would be so ashamed of her and her parents. You see, her grandparents had been emigrates from Spain, both of her maternal grandparents had been born and raised on the land and had even tried their hand at farming when they reached England. But it just hadn't worked out for them; so after they died and her mother never looked back…never returned to the fields.

Yet, here she was, going back to her roots so to speak. Joining the Women's Land Army was a chance for her to escape the bombings of London and it was an opportunity, Santana was going to take. She had lost both her parents as a child and had spent much of her life being shuffled from orphanage to foster home and back again. Well, if she could survive that, Santana figured that living on a farm for a time wasn't going to be so bad.

"I'm looking for Sylvester Farms."

The porter she had stopped looked at her for a moment, taking in her dress and the height of her heels. "You one of those land girls?" Santana nodded at the man, "Well, it's about two miles down the road. Good luck, miss." With a tip of his hat, he wondered off to help an older woman with her luggage.

Santana watched as the man left, huffing at his rudeness. Grabbing her luggage from the platform, she began walking in the direction he pointed, hoping against hope that she would pass a car willing to give her a ride to the farm. But she had no such luck.

"Hello. Is anyone here?" She called out, once she had reached the farm. It had taken her hour to get there, due to frequent stops on account of her shoes. Setting her case down, she surveyed the farm. The house didn't look very big, but the farm's land was vast and the air clean, even if it did smell a little funny to Santana.

"You the new girl?" A voice called out, causing Santana to turn and watch as a dark haired woman came from around the side of the farmhouse. The young Spanish woman nodded her head in reply, choosing to wait for the other woman to introduce herself.

"Rachel Berry." The young woman supplied before waving at other woman that Santana hadn't noticed approach, "Tina Cohen-Chang."

"Santana Lopez." She told both women. "Is there a place for me to put my bags?" Santana questioned, gesturing to her case.

At the mention of her bags, Tina stepped forward and grabbed it. "Sure. Come on. I'll show you were you're sleeping. And then introduce you to Sue. She pulls double duty around here, owns the farm and manages the women, who work the farm." Tina explained as she led Santana into the house.

"First time on a farm?" The young Asian woman asked.

"Yes. My mother was raised on a farm though, but never went back once she married my father." Santana replied, letting her eyes take in the somewhat cheery wallpaper and framed photos on the wall. "Have you been here long?"

"About six months or so…my husband is stationed in Europe at the moment."

"Oh."

"Here we are. You'll be sharing with Brittany and Quinn. I'm across the hall with Rachel and Mercedes." Tina said, pushing the room's door open and walking through. She set the luggage on the vacate bed, then turned and looked at Santana again. "I'll go let Sue know that you're here and get your clothes for you."

"My clothes?"

"Your work clothes. You'll be issued standard army clothes…well, land army clothes, just like in the real army." Tina explained.

"Oh alright." Santana replied. "Thank you." She called out as the other woman left the room. Turning on her heel, she walked toward the low window, which looked onto a field. _The view could be worst_, Santana thought with a shrug of her shoulder. After opening her case, she began the process of unpacking, sorting those pieces that needed to be hung from those that could stay folded in a drawer.

As she worked, she never noticed the approach of another person, until a voice spoke. "Those are pretty shoes."

Dropping the dress she had been holding, Santana spun on her heel, only to come face to face with a young blonde woman. "Thank you. Santana Lopez."

The girl tilted her head as she looked at Santana, before speaking. "That's not my name. My name is Brittany Pierce."

The young Spanish woman blinked at the blonde's replied, confusion marring her olive-skinned face. "No, that's my name."

"Oh!" Brittany exclaimed, "Your name is Brittany Pierce too. Does your middle name start with an S as well?"

"No. My name is Santana Lopez." She tried again.

"So it's not Brittany…?"

The furrow in Santana's brow deepened, unsure of how to respond to the question, but luckily she was saved from having to speak.

"Here are your clothes. And lunch will be ready in about fifteen minutes." Tina said, as she passed Brittany in the open doorway to hand over Santana's work clothes. Santana took them with a small nod, but her eyes never left the blonde.

"Brittany." Tina said, "Aren't you supposed to be helping Mercedes with lunch?"

The blonde nodded with a smile, before bounding out of the doorway and down the stairs. The two women watched as she disappeared with the enthusiasm that only small children seemed to posses.

"Is she alright?" Santana asked.

"If by alright, you mean a little dim, then yes, she's alright." Tina replied. "Brittany's special, has a childlike innocence about her; it's kind of nice, most of the time, given the situation, but we tend to ignore and try not to argue with things that come out of her mouth."

Santana nodded in understanding; she had grown up in orphanages and had meet girls like Brittany, sweet and kind, but really unable to take care of themselves. It was sad really.

"She helps out around the farm, mainly feeding the animals; but she isn't really a land girl." Tina continued, her statement breaking Santana from her thoughts. The young Spanish woman raised an eyebrow at the Asian, waiting for her to explain, which Tina did. "Brittany is Sue's goddaughter; her family sent her here from Surrey. Actually, Rachel and Quinn are from the same area as well. Apparently, they all knew each other before the war."

Just as Santana was about to ask another question, a yell from downstairs caused both women to freeze. Shaking her head, Tina turned on her heel, calling out over her shoulder, "come down when you're ready."

Ten minutes later, Santana found herself in an airy and bright kitchen, seated at a long table with about six other people. Rachel, Tina and Brittany, she had met. And she was quickly introduced to Mercedes, Quinn, and Jean, Sue's sister; yet their host was no where to be found.

"If you're wondering were Sue is, most likely she is getting into another argument with Figgins, he's in charge of village Home Guard. Makes for fun times, usually." Mercedes explained as she grabbed the plate of biscuits from the table.

After taking one, the black woman passed the plate around, allowing each of the fellow land girls to get one.

"So where are you from?" Quinn asked. She was a pretty blonde, who could make the drab khaki coveralls of the land army uniforms look stylish. "I'm from Surrey, as are Rachel and Brittany."

"London." Santana supplied.

"Must be nice," Rachel told the girl. "I've always wanted to go to London and live there. I want to be an actress."

"It's not as glamorous as it once was." Santana remarked, before taking a bite of her vegetable stew. The food was good, much better than the rations that she had been living on in London with some of other girls she had been living in. "What about the two of you?" Santana asked, directing her question towards Mercedes and Tina.

"Both of us are from Manchester, actually." Mercedes replied, "different areas, but still Manchester. So what's your story?"

Santana startled at the question, letting her eyes wonder across the faces of the other women seated at the table. "My story?"

"Why are you here?" Quinn responded. "We all have stories and a lot of them aren't the nicest. Mine's simple, I got pregnant by an army man on leave, got sent away by my parents, then lost the baby. I had a choice, and I choose to come here. I knew Brittany, and she always seemed to speak highly of her godmother. So I took a chance, and I was lucky."

"My husband is off fighting in Europe. And the bombings in Liverpool were just too close for comfort." Tina told the Londoner.

"Same with me." Rachel agreed. "My dads didn't like us being that close to the bombs falling in London. So I came here, and they went to stay with friends near the border of Wales."

"I wanted to help. And I'm just not cut out for factory work." Mercedes said with a grin and a laugh.

"I'm an orphan. Lost my parents young, grew up in London. And I had a feeling that I wouldn't survive the next bombing if I didn't get out now." She told the group, before looking away and tucking into her lunch.

Silence fell across the kitchen, expect for the sounds of forks against plates and the almost whispered sounds of chewing. That is until, the backdoor banged open and Sue Sylvester entered, a scowl on her face. The group of women jumped in their chairs, startled by the loud bang.

"I'm going to kill him." Sue yelled. "Rip him apart and feed him to my pet shark."

"Aunt Sue, you don't have a pet shark. Besides they are too dangerous to have as pets, unless it's a gay shark, then that's okay." Brittany remarked, smiling at her godmother.

Sue glanced at the girl, her frown lessening slightly as she patted the blonde on her head. "Of course, I don't have a pet shark, gay or otherwise, Brittany." After reassuring her goddaughter, Sue sunk into the vacate chair at the head of the table, "You're the new girl."

"Yes." Santana agreed.

But instead of a vocal reply, Sue just grunted before digging into lunch. With a shrug of her shoulders, Santana proceeded to do the same as did the rest of the land women.

It might not be London and what she was used to, but Santana figured that she might actually enjoy living on this farm with these women. And that was perfectly alright by her.

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><p><strong>Accompanying Art: <strong>**http:/ pics. livejournal. com/ lil_grl_lost/ pic/0000qdpr/ **


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